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Over the last decade, our nation’s military towns have reached surprisingly high levels of crime. According to a recent report, major crimes on base, ranging from burglary to assault and murder, have been on the rise throughout the United States since 2003. Knowing this, the possibility that our military towns are not nearly […]

The Navy says no personnel aboard either vessel were injured and that damage to both ships is being assessed, but that Montpelier’s nuclear plant was unaffected by the collision. Montpelier’s vertical rudder isn’t apparent in released photos, suggesting that it was either carried away by the collision or is beneath the surface due to flooding, as the submarine seems to be down by the stern.

Navy press and photo releases stress that both ships are currently operating under their own power.

That’s the 64,000 dollar question, Ralph. In certain operational situations, in certain environments, submarines can be subject to some fairly serious constraints on situational awareness. The Navy states that the vessels were participating in a group sail, which suggests they might have been maneuvering very closely to each other, where the potential for collision is always multiplied, and regardless of electronics and watchstanders, thousands of tons of displacement don’t necessarily want to respond immediately to helm orders. No word yet on who did what to whom, so it would be idle speculation at this point.

First of all, navigation electronics have little to do with a submarines ability to locate and track surface contacts. The fire control systems on todays submarines are very complex and accurate, for the most part. However, they are still operated by humans. The old saying, “garbage in = garbage” out still holds true today for contact management (or contact avoidance, on a submarine). The bottom line is this: submariners are some of the best trained as well as equipped operators in the military. But people still make mistakes. The human factor will always be there, no matter what mitigating factors you put into place. Oh, and a by the way… a submerged submarine has no “personnel on deck”. That would be most unfortunate…